Featured Research

from universities, journals, and other organizations

Lemur "Juliet" May Be New Subspecies; No Mate For "Romeo"

Date:

November 4, 1999

Source:

Duke University

Summary:

Duke University primatologists who have just returned from an expedition to capture a mate for a rare lemur "Romeo" report that the "Juliet" they captured may be a previously unknown subspecies of the acrobatic lemurs known as sifakas.

Share This

DURHAM, N.C.-- Duke University primatologists who have just returned from an expedition to capture a mate for a rare lemur "Romeo" report that the "Juliet" they captured may be a previously unknown subspecies of the acrobatic lemurs known as sifakas.

Related Articles

If DNA tests performed over the next months prove the genetic difference, it would be scientifically irresponsible to mate the two animals, the primatologists say.

Thus, the lemurs Romeo and Juliet may prove to be just as star-crossed as their fictional Shakespearean namesakes.

Also unfortunately, the potentially new subspecies is being actively hunted in the 600-acre island of forest, which is being eaten away by timber-cutting and slash-and-burn agriculture, said the primatologists. As a result, the scientists may have found themselves in a desperate race to save a new subspecies before it becomes extinct.

Primate Center Director Ken Glander led the October expedition to rescue the sifakas from a dwindling patch of the Mahatsinjo forest in the depths of Madagascar. The animals that he and his colleagues sought are "diademed sifakas" -- the largest living lemur and considered among the most beautiful of primates, with lush fur of yellow, orange, gray, white and black.

On Oct. 10, after days of searching for animals that were finally spotted by local villagers, Glander, using tranquilizer darts, managed to capture a young male and a young female. Also, in attempting to dart the rapidly moving animals in the thick forest, an older female was struck in the stomach with a dart and died.

"Ironically, we were aided in our search by some of the same people who are now hunting these animals using poisoned darts," Glander said. "It is clear that these animals have only a very limited amount of time before they are hunted out in this area."

The urgency of the rescue mission was intensified when Glander and his colleagues closely examined the captured animals after they had been transported to the Ivoloina Zoological Park in Madagascar, where they will be acclimatized to captivity over the next six months to a year.

"We were struck by the fact that these animals' fur was more uniformly darker than Romeo's, and without the orange that is characteristic of his species, propithecus diadema diadema," said Glander. "The newly rescued animals also have distinctive white 'eyeglasses' of fur encircling their eyes, and their faces are shaped differently."

The primatologists realized they might have discovered a new subspecies of sifaka that is between Romeo's subspecies and a subspecies known to be nearly completely black ­ propithecus diadema edwardsi.

Such a phenomenon of an intermediate subspecies is possible, theorizes Glander, because Romeo's subspecies is found north of the Munubu River, a major river in Madagascar, while the darker propithecus diadema edwardsi subspecies is found quite far south of the river. The new animals were captured just south of the Munubu.

"If genetic testing reveals that the two animals do indeed represent a subspecies unknown to science, it would be a profound tragedy if they were lost," said Glander, who does plan another expedition to the area next year.

Romeo first came to the Primate Center in the fall of 1993 and has awaited a mate there ever since. He has now reached a weight of 14 pounds, well on his way to his adult weight of 18 to 20 pounds.

Captive breeding programs, such as the Duke Primate Center's, can rapidly replenish populations of animals. Because captured animals are well-fed, and protected from disease and natural enemies, they can produce from five to 10 times more offspring that survive to adulthood than wild animals normally can, Primate Center primatologists say.

The Ivoloina Park is a combination lemur breeding facility, zoo, education center and tourist attraction developed over the past decade by the Primate Center's husband-and-wife team, primatologists Charles Welch and Andrea Katz.

The Duke Primate Center houses the world's largest collection of endangered primates. Duke is also the only university-operated center that concentrates solely on studying and protecting prosimians, such as lemurs, lorises and galagoes. The center is supported by the National Science Foundation, private donations and Duke University.

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Duke University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

More From ScienceDaily

More Plants & Animals News

Featured Research

Mar. 31, 2015 — Researchers have recorded the first direct observations of the micro-scale mechanisms behind the ability of skin to resist tearing. The results could be applied to the improvement of artificial skin, ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — Soil organic matter, long thought to be a semi-permanent storehouse for ancient carbon, may be much more vulnerable to climate change than previously thought. Scientists have found that the common ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — Using the assessment tool ForWarn, US Forest Service researchers can monitor the growth and development of vegetation that signals winter's end and the awakening of a new growing season. Now these ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — Until now electric fences and trenches have proved to be the most effective way of protecting farms and villages from night time raids by hungry elephants. But researchers think they may have come up ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — The endangered desert pupfish has made itself at home in the harsh, hot environment of Death Valley hot springs by using a surprising evolutionary adaptation: They can go for up to five hours without ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — Researchers have detected a human fingerprint deep in the Borneo rainforest in Southeast Asia. Cold winds blowing from the north carry industrial pollutants from East Asia to the equator, with ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — A team of engineers and biologists reports new progress in using computer modeling and 3D shape analysis to understand how the unique grasping tails of seahorses evolved. These prehensile tails ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — As the five-year anniversary of the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig approaches, a new report looks at how twenty species of wildlife are faring in the aftermath of the ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — Scientists have uncovered the earliest fossilized evidence of an insect caring for its young. The findings push back the earliest direct evidence of insect brood care by more than 50 million years, ... full story

Giant Amphibian Fossils Found in Portugal

Reuters - Light News Video Online (Mar. 31, 2015) — Scientists discover a new species of giant amphibian that was one of the largest predators on earth about 220 million year ago. Tara Cleary reports.
Video provided by Reuters

Bionic Ants Could Be Tomorrow's Factory Workers

Reuters - Innovations Video Online (Mar. 30, 2015) — Industrious 3D printed bionic ants working together could toil in the factories of the future, says German technology company Festo. The robotic insects cooperate and coordinate their actions and movements to achieve a common aim. Amy Pollock reports.
Video provided by Reuters

Related Stories

Jan. 31, 2014 — Mating pairs of lemurs mirror each other's scent-marking behavior and even start to smell alike after they have reproduced. Matched scents are possibly a way to combine territory defenses or to ... full story

June 26, 2013 — Lemurs from species that hang out in big tribes are more likely to steal food behind your back instead of in front of your face. This behavior suggests that primates who live in larger social groups ... full story

June 18, 2013 — In the last 10 years the study of animal personality has gained ground with behavioral ecologists. Researchers have now found distinct personalities in the grey mouse lemur, the tiny, saucer-eyed ... full story

May 2, 2013 — Until recently, the only primate known to hibernate as a survival strategy was a creature called the western fat-tailed dwarf lemur, a tropical tree-dweller from the African island of Madagascar. But ... full story

Jan. 7, 2012 — Biologists have discovered a new primate species in the Sahafina Forest in eastern Madagascar, a forest that has not been studied before. The name of the new species is Gerp’s mouse lemur ... full story

ScienceDaily features breaking news and videos about the latest discoveries in health, technology, the environment, and more -- from major news services and leading universities, scientific journals, and research organizations.